John Hattaway

Today marks November 1st and I have been trying to think about what’s changed and how things have changed in relation to my life and life in New England.

The first thing that comes to mind is that I was called to be the second councilor in the Elder’s Quorum presidency. Andy, I live with Andy and Debbie, is the President and a gentleman neither of us knows is the first councilor. He told me, when the call was extended to me and I called him on the floor for playing out that he hadn’t called me into the Elder’s Quorum, that he felt very serious about having me as the second councilor, the his initial response was not to have me in his presidency at all, but that he felt very strongly about having me as a councilor.

I also discovered that there was a forest behind the house across 30 acres of field that remains mostly fallow and is allowed to grow to seed. This forest has a path that leads through the woods and ends at a quarry that sits like a scar on beautiful skin. The point in this is that I have found a place where I can walk and be alone.

What was really cool about this discovery is that I found that the quarry was dug down to the water table in a spot, and since it was at night, and since I had a flashlight on me, I started looking at the water and discovered something was living in the water. Something moved and raced away from the light, which had me thinking about Gollum from the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. As I kept looking whatever it was raced away from the shore, made some noise, and raced back – always keeping out of the light, which was really very frustrating.

I’ve also been working part-time (which is still four days a week) at the bookstore and requested that they bring me on full-time. Garth spoke to Paul who said there shouldn’t be a problem with that but had to check the house before he could make the decision. If I go full-time it will happen in the next couple of weeks.

Today, they had me working in Music all day long, and on top of that, I did re-shelves for the bulk of the day. What that means is that I took products that was had in other parts of the store, on displays, and got to put it back in place in the racks where it belongs, normally. Cheryl, music supervisor, was there and kept watching over me as I worked, which was a little weird, but she kept bringing up conversation topics that were interesting, but at the same time weird as I believe that she is married.

At lunch, as I was trying to work on some writing, there were four girls sitting in the break room who started peppering me with questions about what I was working on, why I typed so fast, why I thought I could get published, why now – to get published and write something, etc., that it was rather awkward. On top of that, I didn’t get any writing done, and really just sat there staring at a screen and only wrote crap.

It’s November 1st and things are going pretty well. I still like the east coast, New England, and what’s happening. In case someone is curious, I have no intention of moving west anytime in the foreseeable future.

Real Heroes Fly